The Nationals look to make it three in a row tonight against the D'backs.

And so there will be baseball tonight on South Capitol Street, albeit slightly delayed. After engineers determined Nationals Park sustained no structural damage from this afternoon's 5.9 magnitude earthquake, the club announced its game against the Diamondbacks would start at 7:25 p.m. Anyone who had tickets and decided not to attend may exchange them for seats of equal or lesser value to any future home game in 2011.

As for the actual game tonight, Jordan Zimmermann makes his penultimate start of the season, his innings count sitting at 150 2/3 at the moment. He'll be opposed by right-hander Ian Kennedy, a 15-game winner and breakout hurler for Arizona this season.

Plenty of updates to come, and check the homepage later for highlights from the press conference to introduce draft picks Anthony Rendon, Alex Meyer and Brian Goodwin…

Analogous to having good Livo and bad Livo (and good MRHRod and bad HRod)– we have great JZ and medium JZ. First inning was "great JZ"(Note: if anyone wants to pick up on my idea, please be more creative than I!)

Struck out Gerardo Parra swinging at a high 0-2 fastball. Music to my ears. My main complaint about JZ earlier this year, and of Stras last year after his first couple of starts, is that they seemed to want to throw everything on the outside half of the plate. High and tight works with 95+ MPH guys (even more so if you have a big bender of a curve). Go "up the ladder" as they say — even the best MLB players find it hard to catch up to a 95+ fastball that's high.Waytogo!

Two starts, 12 innings left (Davey said he'd let him go to 162 to qualify for season leaderboards). The way he looks through 2, Zimmermann might use 9 of the 12 tonight. He's absolutely overpowered them this far. Too bad the ump squeezed him on the 2 out walk.

Just a followup on Scooter's suggestion in a previous thread, to repeat the updates down here in the comments thread. I, too, find it harder to follow two parts of the page, so I keep Mark in a different browser tab. It wouldn't take a whole repeat, though–a link to it would alert us when there is an update, and let us go back and forth.Just a thought.

@Navy Nats FanI'm bringing my Dmitri Young Bobblehead tomorrow. Meet outside Ticket Services just outside of CF gate, next to the garage? What time? I will be wearing a red Nat's T-shirt and holding Da Meat Hook in a box.

Can anyone (Mark included) tell me why Espinosa's at bat music is so insanely loud on the radio broadcast? It's way louder than any others. Enough tha C&D have to pause their play by play. Ia it that much louder in person, or is someone on the production team having a private joke or something?

Sec 3, I respectfully disagree. I think the updates should remain where Mark has them.If you are not following along for the whole game, it is very helpful to have Mark's updates all together. It makes it much easier for me to catch up with a game in progress. Also, we often get off in tangents rather than discussing the action in the game. Readers should not have to hunt among 200 or even 300 posts to find what's going on in the game. Besides, I think it may make Mark's job easier this way. He doesn't have to get into the discussion while he's working, unless he wants to chime in. Personally, I am in awe of Mark's willingness to post in-game updates at all. (Do you know any other professional sportswriters who will do that??) I do not want to add even a tiny bit to his workload.

Ehay2k -6:45 okay? Roger ticket services window by CF gate, to the left as you face the park. I don't know what I'll be wearing – if I come from work, it will be khaki pants, khaki belt, khaki shirt, khaki hat, oh and black shoes just to spice things up.Natinbeantown, their engineer (the Jack of all things) did that for Will Nieves' music too. Maybe he's trying to get C&D to dance to it!

Anon at 8:17 said, " I have a feeling that somebody on the Nats is gonna get nailed next inning."Big mistake if they do that. The umps are surely watching for anything that looks like a deliberate HBP. It would be too "coincidental" if a Nat gets hit next inning.

I would think by now the league would be aware of teams that retaliate and teams that do not. The Cardinals retaliate if you look at them funny, the Nats just don't do that. Reputations should be known around mlb.But if they want to give us a base runner that would be fine, we'll have a hard enough time getting on base with Kennedy pitching.

I don't ever rant about Carpenter, but in this case, I think I'll make an exception. The umps do not have to be mind-readers when Justin Upton gets drilled–UH-gain–and then Morse gets hit. Who was surprised by that? Not Kirk Gibson.

After the Phillies beat the Mets yesterday, 10-0, they are leading 9-0 in the 7th inning today. I don't want to feel sorry for the Mets, and of course the Nats are better off for their losing, but you have to feel their embarrassment.

Did anyone notice what Jordan's ERA dipped to before the HR? It is at 3.10 now. It is meaningless in the scheme of things, but I admit to rooting to see him drop below 3.00 for the season. Kind of a nice optical stat to hear referenced all offseason.

Mick – agreed. The special advisor, player's buddy, crazy old uncle is a much better role. Plus – the Nats really need to do an all-out search and really find the best person for this up and coming team. I do think he was trying to keep Jordan in so that maybe he could get a win, but Jordan is in a precarious post-tommy john situation with an innings limit and has never had a full season. He is not the manager's pet play-thing. Of course, whenever Jordan pitches, he either has errors made behind him or absolutely no run support.

I'm generally not a negative guy — in fact, in seven years of blogging about the Nationals (I had to count back to 2005 on my finger to make sure that number was right), I think I've only written a half-dozen or so critical stories.And before I vent, let me say that in the long run, I think Davey Johnson is going to be a positive influence on this team.But for crying out loud …..Jordan Zimmermann just completed six wonderful innings and brought his ERA down to 2.99. At 157 innings, he should have been pulled and called it a season (no reason to start him for 3-4 innings in another start to reach that mythical/magical 160. He would have ended the year with an ERA under 3.00 and it would have been a stellar year for Zimmermann from just about every conceivable angle. But Davey has left his starter in one inning too long several times this season. Maybe it's because he's from a different era where pitchers were expected to go the distance every night. But pitchers today are creatures of their environment and because 6-7 innings is all that is expected of them, that's all they can produce. So Davey trots Zimmermann out for the 7th and every thing goes haywire. Why? It was obvious that because of the lack of clutch hitting by the Nats, a single run given up would likely lose the game. If the Nats lose tonight (it's 2-0 currently), the loss, and the tarnish on Zimmermann's ERA, is clearly on Davey Johnson.There; I feel much better.(I had to post as anonymous because my dumb computer wouldn't accept my google account … this is Farid @ Pocatello ID)

The Phillies are a first place team, the Dbacks are a first place team ( despite their current cold streak). Win or lose, this game has been an epic battle. Ian Kennedy is a true ace and we have hit off him, but can't get anything across. They will know they were in a game, though. Especially Upton 😉

Cmon, man… There's tons of stuff young guns need to try and to experience… Sometime, he'll NEED to scrap his way through the 7th, because the 'pen is wasted… Good thing Davey doesn't give a rats patootie what we think. I hope he keeps challenging this team!

sunderland said… Upton's over-reaction to getting hit forced Ian Kennedy to retaliate. If he just dropped the bat and jogged to first, I bet Morse would not have been hit.I didn't see tonight's HPB — but didn't Upton get hit *three* times during the last series? If I'm remembering right — I'd sure be upset about getting hit yet again.

Farid – I agree with you. I like Davey and think that he is good for the team, but this seemed like a perfect time to call it a day for JZimm. There was some value to a 2.99 ERA (although I might have trotted him out for another start)

Unkyd said… Cmon, man… There's tons of stuff young guns need to try and to experience… Sometime, he'll NEED to scrap his way through the 7th, because the 'pen is wasted… Good thing Davey doesn't give a rats patootie what we think. I hope he keeps challenging this team!Right on, Unkyd. It's not like tonight's the 7th game of the world series. Further, JZ was due to lead off the bottom of the 7th. There's nothing wrong with trying get another inning out of him.Anony wrote:At 157 innings, he should have been pulled and called it a season (no reason to start him for 3-4 innings in another start to reach that mythical/magical 160.Davey's a players manager and would like to see JZ get to 162 so he can qualify for the league leaders. One more start of 6 innings is probably what JZ and Davey would like to see.He would have ended the year with an ERA under 3.00 and it would have been a stellar year for Zimmermann from just about every conceivable angle.So, because of this one inning, it's _not_ a stellar year? In his first year back after TJ surgery? 2 runs in 6-1/3 to a first place team is not bad.But Davey has left his starter in one inning too long several times this season.He's trying to stretch them, challenge them, and also to cut down on his overused 'pen. If the Nats are going to try to really compete in the near future, the starters have to go longer than 6-1/3 or 6-2/3 every night.

OK, that was one of the best things I've seen in the stands here since the Hopping RFK.Some little boy in the stands, maybe 8 or 9, brought his glove, and catches a foul ball. He acts cool, glad but not excited, like he's caught plenty. He looks it over, approvingly, and then turns and hands it to his dad (I guess), and points to the "little kid" down the row, maybe 3 or 4 years old, and tells Dad to pass the ball to him.Man, that almost makes me reconsider having kids. Better than the dad whose daughter dutifully returned the foul ball.

I agree with Unkyd. If Zimmerman is going to be an ace, he has to learn how to finish games. He needs to learn to locate his pitches even when he is tired. All the top teams have pitchers and hitters that play MAN baseball. That is what the Nats need to learn.

Well, that's that. Sorry to be late to the party, had to clean up some mess from the earthquake when I got home from work–boy is it strange to write that.Clippard is NOT human. (Direct quote from some blogger's headline.)

NatsLady said…Clippard is NOT human. (Direct quote from some blogger's headline.)No kidding! How often does a reliever lead their team in WAR? (Actually, I have no idea how often . . . but it sure seems like it oughtta be fairly rare, no?)

NatsLady said… Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about. I was just trying to be polite. Have a nice evening.Oh, of course! We know you were being polite! Jeffwx was making a psuedo-pun of sorts.Edwin Starr had a huge hit in 1970 with a song called "War" and it's opening line, repeated many times is: "War, hunh, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'" Find it on youtube. Edwin Starr was a great singer.(Note to Jeff — I take mild issue with your spelling of the second word — I think it ought to be properly spelled "hunh" rather than "huh")All in good fun, NatsLady!

Who cares about stats…. they lost 2-0. three games under .500. Bases loaded, one out. Couldn't score a run. That, plus Johnson really doesn't know his pitching staff (really? leave a gassed JZimm out in the 7th to leave pitches in the middle of the plate?). What kind of brain fart is that?The truth is, the Nats are a mediocre team. As long as Nix, Cora, Bixler, Ankiel are on this team, they will be mediocre. I'm hoping they get to .500 this year. It will be a successful year if they do.I will be disappointed with every loss as I Luv a Winner. This game could have been won. Three games back of .500.I don't care about the playoffs. I want the Nats to be winners! GYFNG!!!

I would never have understood that "pun" in a thousand years and there is NO WAY I will go on Youtube and listen to some random pop singer from 1970. I have to listen to enough trashy singing from my students.I will remember in future not to answer anyone's questions any more. In case there are newbies on the site, don't bother me for information.

NatsLady said… I will remember in future not to answer anyone's questions any more. In case there are newbies on the site, don't bother me for information.You sound angry. I apologize if I am the cause of that. We like your answering of our questions. (And you're one of the tops around here with stats!).I hope you reconsider. I thought we were all just playing (trying to amuse ourselves, since that's better than lashing out at player-x or y because the Nats lost).m20832 said… Actually, it was a pretty good song.A huge hit, and Starr had a terrific voice. (Song later covered by Tom Jones, and, much later, by Bruce Springsteen). For those old enough, he had a minor hit called "25 Miles" in 1968. (Unfortunately for him, those were his only two hits).

@m20832: I agree with your comments on the game, it is frustrating that Davey left JZimm in for the 7th. Clearly if the idea is to limit JZ's innings and to shut him down at approximately 160, the reason you are doing that is to save wear and tear on his not-yet-fully-up-to-snuff arm. Well, this is toward the end of the road, so you should be pulling him SOONER, not LATER. If you want to get to 162, let him pitch a few innings in relief. (Is he going on the DL? I don't know exactly what the rules are, but I think it has to be a new injury for him to go on the DL.) Also, I think Davey doesn't agree with the 160-inning limit on JZ. He thinks he knows better than the powers-that-be… And 160 is pretty arbitrary, no doubt. However, after the walk, he did have a "teachable moment" [terrible term] in that JZ blew his cool in Chicago after a miscue, and he does need to keep it together when something bad happens, namely the walk on the ump's "bad" call (I didn't see it, but assume it was).Unfortunately, this was a repeat performance, so Davey ended up pulling JZ anyway, and who knows if the lesson is learned???? Davey had a plan for the game (JZ pitching seven and Clip coming in the 8th with a lead or at the very least, a tie). But he didn't have a good plan and he didn't have a backup plan. On the offense, no suprise. But you have to give credit to Kennedy, an excellent pitcher who got out of jams, and their bullpen. Sometimes you just lose games.

Sigh…on the best baseball night (weather-wise) I've had this summer, Davey leaves Jordan in too long and the Nats lose.Second shutout in a row I've attended. My last game was Saturday vs. Philly. I have baseball bumout right now.But our crowd in 313 is an amusing bunch, at least. Get 'em tomorrow, Nats.GYFNG!

NatsLady said… Also, I think Davey doesn't agree with the 160-inning limit on JZ. He thinks he knows better than the powers-that-be… And 160 is pretty arbitrary, no doubt. What makes you say that? I haven't seen/heard any evidence of that.

Whonky, I have no cite for this, but I recall Johnson actually saying he "might talk to" the folks upstairs about that 160-inning limit.Again, I have nothing specific, but reading several comments by Johnson a couple-three wees back, I got the very strong feeling that he just wished the limit weren't there.

Oh, and the Wikipedia page linked earlier says nothing about Johnny Holliday's birth name, but this page (linked to from what purports to be a sort-of official Holliday site) does. It's quite surprising, but not implausible.

NatsLady, I appreciate your contributions on NI. I didn't get that it was a joke, either, but you get a lot of joy out of this board. please don't let a misunderstanding diminish that.As to the game, we got beat by a very hot pitcher and a first place team. Zimmermann wanted to come back out. Davey said afterwards that he probably shouldn't have let him. Morse shouldn't have struck out. Zimmerman shouldn't have hit into a DP, etc. The team lost this game, Davey included. Now let's come back tonight and win. Go, Livo, and GYFNG!

I enjoy what NatsLady brings, too.btw, did you know that the original title for "War and Peace" was "War, What Is It Good For?" [rimshot](Sorry I'm late on that but I fell asleep in front of the tv well before the game ended and later toddled straight to bed.)